Talkspace: Virtual Therapy App 12+

A few critical issues

I will start by saying that I have been with my therapist and talkspace for years now but there are a number of issues: the biggest one being, insurance being out of network but there’s no notification of that. I just recently discovered that my insurance is OON and I had no idea until Talkspace requested payments and i checked my insurance portal. This is a HUGE deal when it comes to treatment. I, myself work in healthcare as a utilization reviewer that works to get prior authorizations so I know the urgency of ensuring not only are patients covered but that it’s communicated when they are not. When you’re doing messaging sessions weekly which are being billed for and you don’t know that they’re not covered then that only increases the need for therapy…. An alert notification in app would help to notify patients when their benefit information has changed or a phone call.

Next, the glitches are pretty annoying. Having to restart the app essentially when it freezes and now with upgrading to a new phone it does not want to open with my FaceId then it just keeps trying to open itself and I have to swipe out of it, move my face away, and enter my passcode instead. I’ll have to see if I can turn off the FaceID to just use my passcode.

I love my therapist and don’t intend to leave her but this insurance issue is a big issue for me.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, I am happy to hear that you love your provider and have been with Talkspace for years. I do apologize for any misunderstanding regarding your insurance and billing. I appreciate you taking the time to provide such valuable feedback as we continue to improve our user experience.

Love and Hate

Honestly I have a love hate relationship with this app. On one hand, I do love it! It’s an incredibly accessible way to get the help you need. It’s easy to set up and I feel most people you talk with are attentive.

Why I hate it? I’ve now switched prescribers 4 times???? The first time, the person didn’t send in a refill, I contacted them, they never responded and I ran out of medication. They also NEVER remembered my personal life and granted I know they might have a lot of clients but still! The second person was great! Up until they weren’t…they just stopped adding times to their schedule and I reached out weeks in advance and no response. The third person saw me once and just ditched me and now I’m with a new prescriber because apparently the third just left? It’s incredibly frustrating to have unreliable prescribers that can just up and leave! I get if the client and prescriber might not be a good fit but come on! Either way, if you struggle to go places for therapy or medication, this is an incredibly accessible space. However, don’t expect it to be your permanent solution because apparently most prescribers on there just don’t care (live in the Texas area at the time so prescribers linked to this area were where I was struggling with).

Developer Response ,

It's wonderful to hear that you find the app accessible and appreciate the attentiveness of some providers. However, we recognize the challenges you've faced with prescriber consistency and communication. Your feedback is invaluable, and we’ve escalated this internally. Thank you for sharing your experience!

Nightmare and Robbery. AVOID.

What an absolute nightmare. I can’t recommend this service less. When you pay for therapy here, you get “credits” for sessions (45 minutes by the way) and these credits EXPIRE. So you can liable to pay for therapy and then LOSE ACCESS TO THERAPY YOU PAID FOR. This is exactly what happened to me. They took a month to get me a therapist, but told me I could change easily to a new one if I didn’t like mine. By the time I had my first session, all of my 3 other credits for the month were set to expire in a week. So I had no option but to schedule them with this therapist who I didn’t like or else I’d lose the sessions I paid for. This therapist showed up late to multiple of my sessions, and took a nearly 10 minute phone call during one of our short 45 minutes of therapy. By the time that happened, I tried to change therapists and talkspace said they’d get me a new therapist soon. It’s been over a month and a half and I’ve heard nothing. In that time, 3 of my credits expired so I’m out hundreds of dollars of money that has been essentially stolen from me from this absolutely garbage company. You should be ashamed of yourselves for running such a shady company that is allegedly trying to help people but is really just extorting them and not offering the service you promised (being able to actually get a new therapist if you don’t like them). I’d give negative stars if I could.